Dhirubhai - The Man - Manure to the Gulf

Manure to the Gulf

Dhirubhai began enlarging his basket of commodities on offer. He offered to supply anything and everything required from India. Once an inquiry came from a Gulf trader for manure mixed topsoil for a sheik's lawn and rose garden. It was a large order and the price offered was high. But nobody before that had ever received or fulfilled such an order.

Dhirubhai's friends told him there was no way anybody could gather so much of manure mixed topsoil in Bombay and that too in such a short time as required. But that was the sort of challenge that always spurred Dhirubhai's nerves. Against advice of all friends, he offered to meet the order but asked the Gulf party for a bonus on top of the offered price which was conceded.

Dhirubhai gathered all jobless young men from his neighbouring chawls and asked them to fan out all around Bombay and buy all rotten dung heaps they found. A graduate in agriculture science was hired to oversee preparation of the topsoil, which was packed, transported to Bombay and shipped to the Gulf within the given time. "We made big money from that order, real big money," Dhirubhai said.